A. Hovhannisyan, L. Sahakyan, O. Belyaeva, G. Tepanosyan, M. Beglaryan, D. Pipoyan, A. Saghatelyan;                             Annals of Agrarian Science,                             2019,                             17 (4),                             pp. 409 – 414;                                                     
                    
                        
Abstract
In Armenia like other former Soviet states synthetic and particularly organochlorine pesticides were first introduced in the mid XX century and remained in wide use for almost 20 years, up to the 1970s. After the USSR disintegration numerous pesticide storage facilities throughout Armenia were left unmanaged and presently semi-collapsed and abandoned repositories are found in almost all marzes (provinces) of the country. However, no complex, in-depth researches of residual pesticides were ever done in the country, isolated studies had a limited character. The given research is a long-term one and is aimed at detection of residual pesticides in Armenia’s agricultural lands and assessment of residual pesticide contamination in system ‘agricultural soil-irrigation water-fruits and vegetables’. To assure and control the quality of field and lab works the CENS staff have developed respective SOPs (standard operating procedures) and QA/QC (quality assurance and quality control) plans. Chromatographic analyses were done by a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS) Trace DSQ (Thermo Electron Corporation, USA). This paper considers a part of initial research results obtained for Armenia’s 5 out of 10 marzes (provinces) in 2014 and 2015. Data generated from this research have indicated that in all the five studied marzes agricultural soils and those of abandoned pesticide storage sites are contaminated with residual DDT which exceeds national MAC (maximum acceptable concentration) by several tens of times. None of banned residual pesticides were detected in irrigation water and fruit and vegetable samples. Presently, the research is underway.
                        
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